Every Christmas, Easter and other public gathering, the Royal Family are faced with an unfortunate choice: what to do about the two pariahs in their midst?
One of them, Prince Harry, is sulkily ensconced in Montecito, and tends mainly to pop up in this country when he’s fighting yet another legal battle. The other, however, who has been even more of a public embarrassment over the past six years, resists any entreaty to remove himself from the spotlight. Should the Firm simply throw Prince Andrew out altogether, or allow him to tag along whenever they’re all assembled, and hope for the best?
It was the latter option that the royals took this Easter Sunday. The baleful presence of the Duke of York at the traditional service at Windsor Castle, along with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and their children Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, suggests that he has been welcomed into the fold once again, despite his various antics. These would take up too much space to list, but after the recent revelation that Andrew’s connection with the rumoured Chinese spy Chris Yang (aka Yang Tengbo) – who denies all wrongdoing – had seen the duke offer birthday greetings to China’s president Xi Jinping, most might have assumed that the disgraced royal would take a low profile. But no: there he was, stiffly attired in his tailored suit, frowning as he prepared to sing hymns that included “Glorious things of thee are spoken”.
How he might wish they were. But the chances of the Duke of York’s popularity rising from the swamp where it sank after the notorious 2019 Newsnight interview are non-existent. Not only did two separate television dramatisations of that ill-fated event appear on our screens last year, but both portrayed him as a foolish, mother-obsessed braggart. The only question of interpretation was whether he was simply an idiot (as in the Rufus Sewell interpretation) or a mendacious bully (as portrayed by Michael Sheen). The Yang debacle came as no surprise to anyone who has been following Andrew’s antics.
The duke is, to put it mildly, a busted flush, which is why his appearance alongside his wider family at Windsor Castle was all the more surprising. He was barred from attending the family’s Christmas service at Sandringham last year after his connections to Yang had been made public, just as he was advised not to attend their private Yuletide lunch. He acquiesced. However, even though he is no longer a working member of the royal family, he is still the monarch’s younger brother and is therefore theoretically entitled to attend high-profile events. It may well be that the king and queen regard his presence with weariness, and even that Andrew has been politely asked to stay away, but refuses to do so, citing his right to be there. Or, just as possibly, they disapprove of the opprobrium heaped upon the duke and believe that, for all his sins and flaws, he remains one of the family, someone to be kept close for fear of greater embarrassment yet. After all, look at Prince Harry.
Still, 2025 may not be an easy year for Prince Andrew. It was recently announced that the royal historian Andrew Lownie – who has written similarly in-depth, often embarrassing books about the Mountbattens and the Duke of Windsor – has now turned his attention to the Duke and Duchess of York. His new book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York will be published in August and promises “extraordinary revelations”. Even for those of us who think (or hope) they’ve seen it all, there may be more mud-slinging yet to come. Buckle up; if Lownie’s done his job thoroughly, we won’t be seeing Andrew at any more royal get-togethers for a very, very long time.